High Noon
by wllgardners
Summary: The events leading to the capture of the 333 Stalker force Mac and Stella to deal with a turning point in their relationship.


**A/N: just my thoughts of what could/should have happened at the end of 4x10.**

 **Disclaimer: none of the characters of CSI: NY belong to me (but damn, I wished they did)**

After long hours in the office, way past her shift, finally the lose ends from the stalker case had been tied up and Stella was more than willing to go home. Resting was just as necessary as the closed bottle of wine on her fridge, which she'd been dreaming of for the last couple hours. Although she was well aware alcohol wasn't the best way of coping with stress and trauma, it was the only thing she had avaiable for tonight.

Her plans were interrupted when she noticed the lights of the main office were still on. There was only one good explanation for that, one that got her particulary concerned. Checking to see if her instincts were right, she made her way to said office, only to find Mac still working on his desk.

"Why on Earth are you still here?" the sound of her voice broke the silence of the room and brought his attention to her. She stood now just a few feet away from his desk with arms crossed and an adamant expression.

"Finishing my report" that wasn't exactly a lie from his part, he really had being working on his report on the case. But that wasn't the main reason he remained there.

"You were kidnapped and almost murdered today. I think the chief wouldn't mind if you were a little late to deliver the report." she worried about him. He tended to take the weight of the world on his shoulders, something she knew quite well wouldn't always end well as it did today.

"Almost ending" he tried to come up with an excuse before looking down at the files in front of him again.

"Mac..." she pried and his gaze fell back on hers right away. In a firm tone she continued. "Go home."

"I d-" he bit his lip and shifted uncomfortably on his seat. "I don't think it's a good idea."

No words were necessary anymore, by the way he shrugged she could tell exactly what was going on in his head. It took them years to reach this level of unspoken communication, however nowadays, reading each other had become a natural thing. She could tell guilt was clouding his judgment and possibly filling up his mind to a point where only work could serve as a distraction.

She sighed after acklowledging what was going on. Replaying the case itself over and over again for working purposes wasn't really a healthy way to deal with it. Perhaps she should offer him another kind of distraction. "Then maybe you should stay and share those bottles you keep in your secret stash with me."

He half smiled at her in amusement. "How did you know about that?"

"I'm very resorceful" she teased, causing him to chuckle lightly. She took that as a victory already.

The bottom drawer of his desk was opened and he grabbed a bottle of whiskey that had been a gift from a successful attorney after another case and also two glasses. He rose from his seat and walked to her side, offering her one of the glasses before pouring the golden liquid into it.

"To closure" she raised her glass at him as if proposing a toast. Her voice offering the slightest feeling of comfort with such words.

"Right" he agreed before clinking their glasses. Both of them sipped from the whiskey afterwards.

"God, I hate scotch" she complained after settling her glass on his desk and making a disgusted face with the taste of the beverage. His reaction was to scoff at her silliness, which caused her to share a contained laughter.

Simultaneously they leaned on the edge of the desk and turned their attention to the less crowded hallways of the lab. Night shift had much less people if compared to Day and Swing, and since this was right the beggining of it, most of the CSI's were out in the field collecting evidences from scenes. Emptyness gave a sense of solitute to both of them.

"I'm sorry" the several seconds of a comfortable silence that had been stablished between the two of them while they had been lost in their own thoughts ended with his apologetic tone. He turned his head at her. "I got you caught up in this mess."

She locked her eyes on his and offered him a sympathetic half smile. "It's really not your fault."

"I disagree with that" his words carried a lot of pain and it wasn't too hard for her to notice it. "You could've gotten hurt. And honestly, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I caused that."

"Nothing happened" she said tenderly.

"Only because you were extremily smart" he looked up and breathed hard, the memories of his terrible afternoon tied to a chair with a psycho threatening him and the people he cared about running back to his mind. Failing to notice her inquiring look at him, he reasoned. "As usual."  
"As much as I like a compliment, I must say tracking his brother was a team work" her jokingly tone brought his attention back to her.  
"Well, yes. But you made him go first through that door. And with a vest, too." he watched as she furrowed her eyebrows at him, "His plan all along was for you to be the one walking in to my rescue. He knew you wouldn't give up until finding me" his defenses were slowly falling, revealing his vunerability. "So you'd barge in and get shot right in front of my eyes in some kind of twisted psychological torture."

"Wow..." she gulped hard as her eyes widened with the new piece of information. Up until this point she had only thought she was being used as a way to get closer to him, never did she imagine something so cruel involved her.

"I only bring danger to the people I care about. It's always been like this" his confession broke her heart. He certainly deserved the world and none of this self pity and pain. She wished he could see the other side, the amazing things he had done for her and everyone else in the team.

"Don't beat yourself up for something that didn't even happen" she had the same tender tone of before. Little did she knew that just to speak like this it, his chest feel a tad less heavy. "Besides, I'm right here, aren't I?"

His lips twitched up at her attempt to humor him, there was something on her urge to always light up the moods that was simply fascinating to him. Shifting the topic of the conversation to her, he continued. "So, did you like him?"

"No" she said with a little more emphasis than necessary. The curl of his lips grew at her reaction. "I mean, we went out on one date and he just put up this huge show. He was desperately trying to impress me and buy my heart with all those gifts. That's really not my thing."

"Never thought it was" he acknowledged and she chuckled softly in response.

"But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't good to feel desired after all this time" it was her time to strike him with a personal information.

As he processed her words, things started to make sense. She had just opened her heart for Frank when he destroyed everything, taking some of her confidence and self steem with him to the grave. Now this Drew guy had come up and showed interest on her, it was nothing more than a fascade, a tactic to use her and get to someone else. Of course she would think poorly of herself after all this, even though it wasn't truth.

"You are a very desirable woman" he only noticed that little slip of mind after seeing her face changing into a pure shock expression. Although he really meant that, no doubt an information like this was never supposed to leave his late night fantasies. "I-I mean... I'm sure there are plenty of guys interested in you" he stuttered on his words trying to fix it.

The frown on her face didn't disappear as he supposed it would. Instead, it only seemed like she had gotten more tense with his last comment. He understood why when she replied. "The last two ended up trying to kill me. So, I guess maybe the problem is me."

"I can assure you it's not" he was specially tender while saying so. Her eyes locked with his and she smiled with grattitute in response.

Contrary to what she imagined, he didn't flinch when she got a bit closer, he stood still while holding his gaze at her. For a second she swore he was expecting more when she stopped diminishing the distance between them. She ended up laying on his shoulder, a gesture to which he responded to by wrapping an arm around her, pulling her even nearer.

She hated to feel weak and vunerable around anyone, well, anyone but him. With him things were different, she could be exactly who she was and show pretty much all of her insecurities without shame or that lingering fear of being judged. So as of right now, she didn't care at all for laying those mixed emotions on him, it felt good to forget everything for the brief seconds she was on his embrace.

Something unexpected happened though, after a few minutes of being comfortably held by her best friend, she noticed how the muscles of the crook of his neck contracted, in a movement she could only assume it was his head turning. Soon she felt a feather kiss on the top of her hair, which was certainly not a common action from him.

Her head also turned up to face him and, as soon as their eyes locked, butterflies filled her stomach. There was something different about the way he looked at her right now, she couldn't quite explain what it was but damn, it felt amazing to be looked at like that. When his hand slid down her back as he leaned just a tad closer she lost track of time and space.

As it turns out both of them moved at the same time, closing the gap between their lips in synced movements. A jolt of electricity ran down her body the second she felt his soft thin lips on hers, she couldn't contain herself from landing her hand on his cheek and caressing it. This wasn't awkward or felt wrong in any way, it was actually quite the other way around.

Their kiss deepened to the point where both of their lips had already parted open and their tongue swirled around each other intensely. His firm grip on her waist only served to spark even more the fire within her soul as she melted into the sensations he was evoking with each new touch on her heated skin. There were at least four years of repressed feelings finally being outed in that moment.

It wasn't until her hand snaked down his neck that reality hit her. Her fingers lingered in one of the veins on the side of his neck that pulsated frenetically, echoing the quickened pace of his heart. Not only was her blood drowning in adrenaline but his was too, and by the way things had escalated, it seemed there was only one way this could go if they continued. That's when sanity striked; they weren't supposed to be doing any of this.

She backed off slowly, taking his lower lip between her teeth as long as she could in order to hold on to the every last second of this amazing experience. She remained with her eyes closed for a while and felt the hot air of his heavy breathing crashing on her face. Moving a few more inches back she opened her eyelids and observed his expression; pupils dilated to their max, tip of the ears reddened and a slight smudge of her lipstick on his mouth. A familar warmth spreaded inside her with such sight.

He was static and staring at her, little did she know he was completely unable to put two words together after the turmoil of sensations she had provided with with solely a kiss. One dose of her was enough to inebriate him to the extent of turning his rational mind to mush.

The distance between them kept being fed by the steps behind she took, their eyes still connected in a gaze as she did so. Several seconds later, once she was near the door already, her initially shaky voice broke the silence "I need to go."

He didn't say anything, just nodded and finally diverted his eyes from hers. She took that as an opportunity to turn her back at him and walk as fast as she could until the elevator. Right after its doors ringed open she took a quick look at him from across the glass walls of the lab before getting inside and disappearing to the parking lot.


End file.
